NEWS
Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund
8 Apr 2016 - Australian Fund Monitors
Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund returned -6.73% for the month of March.
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8 Apr 2016 - Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | In a typical environment the Fund will hold around 70 stocks comprising 35 pairs. Each pair contains one long and one short position each of which will have been thoroughly researched and are selected from the same market sector. Whilst in an ideal environment each stock's position will make a positive return, it is the relative performance of the pair that is important. As a result the Fund can make positive returns when each stock moves in the same direction provided the long position outperforms the short one in relative terms. However, if neither side of the trade is profitable, strict controls are required to ensure losses are limited. The Fund uses no derivatives and has no currency exposure. The Fund has no hard stop loss limits, instead relying on the small average position size per stock (1.5%) and per pair (3%) to limit exposure. Where practical pairs are always held within the same sector to limit cross sector risk, and positions can be held for months or years. The Bennelong Market Neutral Fund, with same strategy and liquidity is available for retail investors. |
| Manager Comments | The short book drove the under-performance with a negative return contribution approximately twice the size of the positive return generated from the long book. By way of pairs, loss-making pairs outnumbered profitable ones, again by a ratio of about two to one. The short book showed that across the top 10 losing positions in March, all of the price action was driven by sentiment and liquidity factors as opposed to fundamental earnings. The Fund's investment philosophy has always centred upon fundamentals and therefore have not responded to the events of March with any notable portfolio changes. Click below to read the Fund Manager's commentary and market outlook. |
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Morphic Global Opportunities Fund
8 Apr 2016 - Australian Fund Monitors
Morphic Global Opportunities Fund fell 0.41% in March, underperforming its benchmark (MSCI AC World Total Return in Australian Dollars), which fell 0.27%, by 0.14%.
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8 Apr 2016 - Morphic Global Opportunities Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Manager Comments | The best gain came from the Fund's three long short pairs in Japanese retail. Drugstore chains Tsuruha and Kusuri No Aoki outperformed the overall stock market and the over-priced, exgrowth drugstore chain Cosmos, while Tokyo regional supermarket chain Yaoko also beat the struggling but expensive giant retail conglomerate Aeon. In Australia, the Fund made money being long in Fortescue and short in Woolworths. The biggest loser was US banking giant Wells Fargo. The Fund continues to remain fully invested and grow their over-weight position to emerging markets and US Healthcare services, while reducing their overall exposure to US banks. Click below to read more. |
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Supervised High Yield Fund
7 Apr 2016 - Australian Fund Monitors
Supervised High Yield Fund returned a positive 0.20% for the month of February, to bring annualised performance since inception to 9.39% p.a.
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7 Apr 2016 - Supervised High Yield Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The fund may also invest in interest rate swaps, options over authorized investments and exchange traded futures contracts. All these will be either listed or traded in a market where they can be independently valued. Fundamental to the investment procedure is the tenet that no debt security will qualify for investment unless it can repay 100% of its principal and interest in a worst case economic scenario. |
| Manager Comments | More than half of the portfolio's composition (as a percentage of NAV) was invested in Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities (RMBS) 61.29%. The rest of the portfolio composition was in USD Corporate Loans at 21.68%, Cash at 12.46% and AUD Corporate Loans at 4.57%. The Fund Manager believes that individual valuation prices should follow recent market price activity pointing to improved performance in the period ahead for the type of assets held in the Supervised High Yield Fund. During the first half of March 2016 the reversals in price direction have continued with Treasury Bonds selling off whilst Corporate notes and bonds have been increasing in value along with commodities and equities. Click below to view the latest Fund Manager Report. |
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Meme Australian Share Fund
6 Apr 2016 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Meme Australian Share Fund rose 3.38% to take latest 12 months return to 9.20%.
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6 Apr 2016 - Meme Australian Share Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The Fund's investment strategy seeks to identify low-risk entry opportunities and then build positions in these stocks. Once established in the portfolio, individual stock holdings are maintained for as long as their long-term upward trend remains intact and while they continue to make positive contributions to portfolio growth. Positions are reduced and ultimately closed out as their trends become exhausted or as their relative long-term performance against the broad market weakens. The Fund believes that longer time frame investments also provide a number of advantages. The effect of false signals and 'noise' which attend shorter term time frames is mitigated by only attending to signals which are confirmed by our longer term assessments. Also, the Fund gains exposure to the more expansive price trends which can last for months and years, allowing dividends and distributions received during this time to further enhance portfolio returns. |
| Manager Comments | The top 5 positive contributors were Resapp Health, Galaxy Resources, Emerchants Limited, Altura Mining and General Mining, while the five most negative contributors were Collins Foods, Nagambie Resources, Blackham Resources, HUB24 Limited and Ramelius Resources. By month end the total number of portfolio stocks had fallen to 88 however the portfolio was virtually fully invested with cash sitting at less than 1%, reflective of the emergence of opportunities. The portfolio increased exposure to the Financials, Materials, Industrials, Property and Utilities sectors and decreased to the Energy, Consumer Staples and Information Technology sectors. Exposure to other sectors remained relatively stable. Click below to read the latest Fund Manager's commentary on the Fund. |
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Fund Review: QATO Capital Market Neutral Long/Short Fund February 2016
5 Apr 2016 - Australian Fund Monitors
Latest Fund Review is now available on QATO Capital Market Neutral Long/Short Fund, investing exclusively in S&P/ASX 100 stocks.
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5 Apr 2016 - Fund Review: QATO Capital Market Neutral Long/Short Fund February 2016
By: Australian Fund Monitors
Qato Capital AFM Fund Review February 2016 (pdf format)
QATO Capital Market Neutral Long/Short Fund
Attached is our most recently updated Fund Review on the QATO Capital Market Neutral Long/Short Fund.
We would like to highlight the following aspects of the Fund;
- Qato Capital is a Melbourne-based boutique fund manager backed by single family office, Larkfield Funds Management.
- Qato has a systematic, market-neutral strategy which invests exclusively in S&P/ASX 100 stocks.
- The QATO Capital's Q-score process captures and quantifies six broad fundamental factors, which assess multiple underlying sub-categories. Those companies with the top score (quality companies) are included in the "long" portfolio, those with the lowest score are sold short.
- The Fund seeks to preserve capital and maximise absolute returns through active and constant risk management, targeting monthly a net market exposure of 0% to hedge broader market risks through 30 S&P/ASX-100 positions (15 long & 15 short equally-weighted positions).
- Qato Capital's process is entirely systematic - stock selection and risk management are employed in a rules based approach. The Fund employs no financial leverage/gearing to purchase securities, no derivatives and no financial products to imitate leverage.
Qato Capital AFM Fund Review February 2016 (pdf format)
Fund Review: Insync Global Titans Fund February 2016
4 Apr 2016 - Australian Fund Monitors
Latest Fund Review on Insync Global Titans Fund is now available.
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4 Apr 2016 - Fund Review: Insync Global Titans Fund February 2016
By: Australian Fund Monitors
INSYNC GLOBAL TITANS FUND
Attached is our most recently updated Fund Review on the Insync Global Titans Fund.
We would like to highlight the following:
- The Fund decreased by 1.8% in February. The performance was driven by positive contributions from the holdings in Paypal, McGraw-Hill, Gilead Sciences, Comcast and Reckitt Benckiser. The main negative contributors were Sanofi, Nestle, McDonald's, Time Warner and Microsoft. The Fund continues to have no foreign currency hedging in place as Insync consider the main risks to the Australian dollar to be on the downsid
- The Global Titans Fund invests in a concentrated portfolio of 15-30 stocks, targeting exceptional, large cap global companies with a strong focus on dividend growth and downside protection.
- Portfolio selection is driven by a core strategy of investing in companies with sustainable growth in dividends, high returns on capital, positive free cash flows and strong balance sheets.
- Emphasis on limiting downside risk is through extensive company research, the ability to hold cash and long protective index put options.
For further details on the Fund, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Pengana PanAgora Absolute Return Global Equities Fund
1 Apr 2016 - Australian Fund Monitors
Pengana PanAgora Absolute Return Global Equities Fund returned -1.62% for the month of February. The Fund has low systematic risk (beta) to the ASX200 and the MSCI World Indices of 0.10.
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1 Apr 2016 - Pengana PanAgora Absolute Return Global Equities Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | PanAgora believes the best way to find opportunities in the global markets is to combine fundamental analysis with robust quantitative techniques in order to filter the investment universe and select the investments. The Fund invests primarily in listed equity securities from a global universe of developed markets and a select group of emerging market countries. The Fund's objective is to seek absolute returns by identifying and exploiting multiple inefficiencies that may exist in global equity markets. These inefficiencies are primarily exploited through the use of a long/short equity strategy which aims to construct a portfolio that is generally neutral to market movements. As such the performance of the investment strategy is largely independent of the market's performance. The Fund seeks to achieve its objective by using a diversified set of strategies that have low correlation to one another. In addition, because many of these strategies are designed to generate profit under different market conditions, their combination is expected to result in more stable returns over time than any individual strategy in and of itself. |
| Manager Comments | This negative performance was all attributed to the longer term portfolio which was down 1.68%. Volatility across asset classes remained elevated and the stocks held by fundamental fund managers performed the worst. As a result quality stocks were sold and, as some investors had to cover their shorts to deleverage their positions, lower quality stocks performed relatively better. Click below to read the latest Fund Manager's Report. |
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Fund Review: Bennelong Twenty20 Australian Equities Fund February 2016
31 Mar 2016 - Australian Fund Monitors
Latest Fund Review on Bennelong Twenty20 Australian Equities Fund is now available.
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31 Mar 2016 - Fund Review: Bennelong Twenty20 Australian Equities Fund February 2016
By: Australian Fund Monitors
Bennelong Twenty20 - AFM Fund Review February 2016 (pdf format)
BENNELONG TWENTY20 AUSTRALIAN EQUITIES FUND
Attached is our most recently updated Fund Review on the Bennelong Twenty20 Australian Equities Fund.
- The Bennelong Twenty20 Fund invests in ASX listed stocks, combining an indexed position in the Top 20 stocks with an actively managed portfolio of stocks outside the Top 20. Construction of the ex-top 20 portfolio is fundamental, bottom-up, core investment style, biased to quality stocks, with a structured risk management approach.
- Mark East, the Fund's Chief Investment Officer, and Keith Kwang, Director of Quantitative Research have over 50 years combined market experience. Bennelong Funds Management (BFM) provides the investment manager, Bennelong Australian Equity Partners (BAEP) with infrastructure, operational, compliance and distribution services.
For further details on the Fund, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Bennelong Twenty20 - AFM Fund Review February 2016 (pdf format)
Newgate Real Estate and Infrastructure Fund
30 Mar 2016 - Australian Fund Monitors
Newgate Real Estate and Infrastructure Fund delivered a negative 0.70% for the month of February, outperforming the ASX200 Accumulation Index, which fell -1.76%, by 1.06%.
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30 Mar 2016 - Newgate Real Estate and Infrastructure Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The Fund's research use detailed analysis of the underlying assets integrated with financial analysis to determine a sustainable yield and fundamental DCF valuation for the security. Also the Fund believes in having a strong risk control framework. The Fund will also use trading strategies via rebalancing of core portfolio positions as well as taking advantage of shorter duration inefficiencies in markets caused by an imbalance in demand and supply for global REIT and Infrastructure securities. The Fund focuses on generating absolute returns after fees of 12 to 15% pa over the medium to long term. The long-short nature of the Fund combined with Newgate's rigorous investment process ensures returns generated by the Fund are largely independent of rising or falling markets. Newgate is focused on providing investment opportunities primarily within core, value-add, opportunistic and development sectors of direct property and across listed and unlisted real estate and infrastructure securities. The Fund's investment team consists of Tim Hannon, Campbell McComb, Darren Brusnahan, Nishant Narayanaswamy and Nicole Merrillees. |
| Manager Comments | The Fund's performance was a result of a net short position that began building late in the month in the face of a real estate and infrastructure sector that rallied approximately 2.0% in the same period. Since then, the Fund has continued to gradually build its net short position to exploit a situation of stretched sectoral valuations and degrading fundamentals. Click Manager's Report to read more. |
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Insync Global Titans Fund
30 Mar 2016 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Insync Global Titans Fund returned -1.80%, compared to the MSCI All Country World ex-Australia Net Total Return Index in $A, which returned -1.6%.
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30 Mar 2016 - Insync Global Titans Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | Insync employs four simple screens to narrow the universe of over 40,000 listed companies globally to a focus group of high quality companies that it believes have the potential to consistently grow their profits and dividends. These screens are size of the company, balance sheet performance, valuation and dividend quality. Companies that pass this due diligence process are then valued using dividend discount models, free cash flow yield and proprietary implied growth and expected return models. The end result is a high conviction portfolio of typically 15-30 stocks. The principal investments will be in shares of companies listed on international stock exchanges (including the US, Europe and Asia). The Fund may also hold cash, derivatives (for example futures, options and swaps), currency contracts, American Depository Receipts and Global Depository Receipts. The Fund may also invest in various types of international pooled investment vehicles. At times, Insync may consider holding higher levels of cash if valuations are full and it is difficult to find attractive investment opportunities. When Insync believes markets to be overvalued, it may hold part of its resources in cash, or use derivatives as a way of reducing its equity exposure. Insync may use options, futures and other derivatives to reduce risk or gain exposure to underlying physical investments. The Fund may purchase put options on market indices or specific stocks to hedge against losses caused by declines in the prices of stocks in its portfolio. |
| Manager Comments | The performance was driven by positive contributions from the holdings in Paypal, McGraw-Hill, Gilead Sciences, Comcast and Reckitt Benckiser. The main negative contributors were Sanofi, Nestle, McDonald's, Time Warner and Microsoft. The Fund continues to have no foreign currency hedging in place as Insync consider the main risks to the Australian dollar to be on the downside. Click below to read the latest Fund Manager Report. |
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